Everlasting Love

‘Everlasting Love’ is a rather bizarre choice for a title of a movie that is all about lust and other rather gruesome practices, so one can only assume it is meant to be ironic. It is the sophomore feature from Spanish filmmaker Marçal Forés (‘Animals’) and is a tale about cruising for sex, both gay and straight, that carries on in some rather dense woods on the outskirts of Barcelona.
 
Carlos is a gay middle-aged university professor who teaches Chinese but outside of the classroom he is a habitué of the cruising grounds. He has a penchant for being something of a voyeur, but is happy enough to get involved in some action of his own when he is picked up by Toni one of his own young students who had been previously stalking him at school.  They have very aggressive sex in the back of Carlos’s car and he allows Toni to take control and dominate.

Next time they encounter each other at school Toni has obviously developed a crush on Carlos and so is upset when the teacher says that the other night was a one-off and will never be repeated.  What Carlos is totally unaware of is that Toni is part of a sinister group lurking in the woods who are involved in some perverted deviant rituals which having been making headline news when the bodies of their victims are discovered.

Now that Carlos has rejected him, Toni’s oddball friends are determined to help him wreak some revenge. It starts innocently enough when the two men encounter each other late at night in the woods, and Carlos changes his mind about wanting to hook up with the sullen young man again.  He suggests they go back to his house but when his car will not start, Toni’s friends just ‘happen’ to show up and offer a ride to the two stranded men.

Once in Carlos’s home they provoke him into getting naked, and even through he senses an element of danger, he goes along with their commands as he is obviously getting aroused by the whole situation. It is however the beginning of something that he certainly never bargained for.

Although the horrendous ending is quite predictable, the journey to this point is quite compelling.  Part erotic, part romantic but mainly blood-curling : this tale of different types of lust, and what people will do to fulfill their desires makes interesting viewing. The sex is very realistic but Forés shoots in such a way that it is not explicit and therefore not the most important element of the film but it still makes voyeurs of us all. 

An oddball of a movie but quite a thrilling ride nevertheless.

 


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